In a field of multifunction peripheral (MFP) having multiple functions such as copier, facsimile, printer and scanner functions, it is known that a MFP accesses a removable medium or a file on a network to print image data stored therein.
However, even when a MFP can access a file, there is a case where the file format of the file is not available to the MFP, or the file has too large a file size to be processed by the MFP, thereby causing a problem in that the MFP cannot perform the desired processing.
A case where the file format is not available to a MFP will be described by reference to FIG. 29.
Referring to FIG. 29, the file format of a file stored in a removable medium is not available to a MFP, i.e., the file format is a non-MFP-compliant file format. Therefore, the MFP cannot print out the file. In this regard, the removable medium may store files having a file format available to the MFP. When a user tries to print out a file without considering whether or not the file format of the file is available to the MFP, a problem in that the MFP cannot convert the file to print data, and thereby the file cannot be printed out may be caused.
A case where the file has too large a file size to be processed by a MFP will be described by reference to FIGS. 27 and 28.
FIG. 27 illustrates a case where a MFP having a memory with a capacity of 512 Mbyte prints out a JPEG image, which has a file size of 50 Mbyte when being decompressed. A conventional MFP expands an image data stored in a removable medium such as a SD memory card (herein after referred to as a SD card) in a memory installed in the MFP, and converts the image data to print data to print out the image data.
FIG. 28 illustrates a case where a MFP having a memory with a capacity of 512 Mbyte tries to print out a JPEG image, which has a file size of 900 Mbyte when being decompressed, but the MFP cannot print out the JPEG image. When a MFP tries to print out an image data with a file size greater than the capacity of the memory installed in the MFP, a problem in that the image data cannot be printed out because storage cannot be reserved in the MFP may be caused.
In this regard, a technique is proposed in which a MFP functions as a remote file server, and remotely accesses data stored in a removable medium connected with an external information processor on a network.
However, even when a MFP can remotely access data stored in a removable medium of an external device, the problem such that the MFP cannot print out the data because the file format of the data is not available to the MFP, or the data have too large a size to be processed by the MFP cannot be avoided.
For these reasons, the present inventor recognized that there is a need for an image processor which can process data using an external device on a network even when the file format of the data is not available to the MFP or the data have too large a size to be processed by the MFP.